Is this site safe?

peter021072

I've got an unsolicited email via my googlemail account, from a site I've never heard of, or subscribe to. 

The Email is titled

"Control how neighbours view your profile" the site is
 
https://nextdoor.com/ 

It says "if you do not make a selection, your default setting will be set to 'Anyone on Nextdoor'"

The unsubscribe option requires me to log in directly which is obviously impossible without creating an account, or using Facebook Google or Apple!

Neil_Jones

peter021072 said:

I've got an unsolicited email via my googlemail account, from a site I've never heard of, or subscribe to. 

The Email is titled

"Control how neighbours view your profile" the site is
 
https://nextdoor.com/ 

It says "if you do not make a selection, your default setting will be set to 'Anyone on Nextdoor'"

The unsubscribe option requires me to log in directly which is obviously impossible without creating an account, or using Facebook Google or Apple!

Contrary to popular belief you can subscribe to websites without using the services you mention.

Are you actually registered on nextdoor.com, never mind what the email says?

If you're sure you never went there, go to the website (via the address bar, not by clicking any links in an email), follow the "forgot my password" link and see what you get.  If you get a "you requested a password reset" or similar, then you're registered.  If you don't, you aren't.

Neil49

Many thanks for asking the question. 

It has prompted me to go onto the Nextdoor website and amend my profile settings to something other than Everyone. 

knightstyle

I am a member of Nextdoor and have the same email. It is genuine and refers to their updating the website.

peter021072

No I've never registered, this is entirely new to me  Never heard of it..

The weird thing about this site is how little you can see without registering or logging in.  Pressing unsubscribe simply sends you to the log on page, which is very annoying.

A long time ago I was a member of a local web group which got shut down, and a sort of neighbourhood watch scheme which I haven't used for years.  Could someone have sold them the details if they took these over?

I have a googlemail and Facebook account but rarely use the latter.  I guess they are fishing for members, hoping they will register to turn off the the 'everyone' default.

This seems to be a crafty way of getting people to register, but how would that link to the Email.  They have probably scraped googlemail or Facebook, so I may need to log in to that way, but how much information can they gather by me doing that?  There are usually warnings you are sending out information when logging in like that.

There should be a law where unsubscribing to an unknown site, doesn't require subscribing to it first!

Farway

Neil49 said:

Many thanks for asking the question. 

It has prompted me to go onto the Nextdoor website and amend my profile settings to something other than Everyone. 

Ditto, just amended mine, I just assumed the e mail was usual blurb

Neil_Jones

peter021072 said:

No I've never registered, this is entirely new to me  Never heard of it..


There should be a law where unsubscribing to an unknown site, doesn't require subscribing to it first!

Well if you haven't signed up to the website mentioned in the email why are you questioning the legitimacy?  Just delete the email.

As to "there should be a law where unsubscribing to an unknown site doesn't require subscribing to it first" - there is, there was a large wave of emails sent in 2019 when GDPR came along and every newsletter/contact/email service you've ever subscribed to and forgot about asked those on the list "do you still want to receive me?  If so, click here, otherwise ignore me and this will be the last you hear of us" (or words to that effect).  You can't unsubscribe from something you didn't subscribe to in the first place.

Far more likely the links in the email you have had are phishing mails.

John_Gray

It might be worth people reading some of the reviews of NextDoor on Trustpilot.

Farway

John_Gray said:

It might be worth people reading some of the reviews of NextDoor on Trustpilot.

Not very keen are they?

On a personal level I use it, but on desktop with ad blocks, and limited to immediate neighbourhood.

Seems to be lost cats, any one know a plumber, is XYZ open? in the main when ever I look, which is not often.

Maybe it's different on a mobile?

Neil_Jones

Farway said:

John_Gray said:

It might be worth people reading some of the reviews of NextDoor on Trustpilot.

Not very keen are they?

On a personal level I use it, but on desktop with ad blocks, and limited to immediate neighbourhood.

Seems to be lost cats, any one know a plumber, is XYZ open? in the main when ever I look, which is not often.

Maybe it's different on a mobile?

Doubt it.  Sites like these are just wannabe social media sites working on a local level, rather than a national/international level like Facebook/Twitter and friends...  The problem is most people have never heard of them.  People will tend instead to post pictures of lost cats, requests for plumbers and pee and moan about why there was a police helicopter in the area at 3am last  night on the Facebook groups instead

Jenni_D

Neil_Jones said:

Farway said:

John_Gray said:

It might be worth people reading some of the reviews of NextDoor on Trustpilot.

Not very keen are they?

On a personal level I use it, but on desktop with ad blocks, and limited to immediate neighbourhood.

Seems to be lost cats, any one know a plumber, is XYZ open? in the main when ever I look, which is not often.

Maybe it's different on a mobile?

Doubt it.  Sites like these are just wannabe social media sites working on a local level, rather than a national/international level like Facebook/Twitter and friends...  The problem is most people have never heard of them.  People will tend instead to post pictures of lost cats, requests for plumbers and pee and moan about why there was a police helicopter in the area at 3am last  night on the Facebook groups instead

You forgot about posts about "dog doo" and "does anyone know who is the Hermes driver?" 😉😁